Tag feeder



April 1951 H. ZABEL, JR., ETAL. 2,550,032

TAG FEEDER Filed Jan. 23, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 25 7 2/ 3 INVENTORSHARRY H. ZABEL HENRY ZABEL JR.

GEORGE HARRISON ATTORNEYS A ril 24,- 1951 H. ZABEL,JR., ET AL 2,550,032

TAG FEEDER Filed Jan. 25, 1948 2 Sheeis-Sheet 2 INVENTORS HARRY H.2ABELHENRY ZABEL JR. GEORGE HARRISON AT TORNEYS Patented Apr. 24, 1951 OFFICETAG FEEDER Henry Zabel, Jr., Harry H. Zabel, and George Harrison,Sheboygan, Wis.

Application January 23, i948, Serial No. 4,034

2 Claims.

This invention appertains to feeding devices for printing presses andmore particularly to an automatic device for feeding tags to a printingpress of the platen type. Much difficulty has been experienced in theproper feeding of shipping and like tags to printing presses due to thereinforced openings at one end thereof, which constitutes an undue bulkor thickness at one side of a pack of tags and a corresponding thinnesson the other side of the pack of tags, resulting in the unevenpresentation of the tags to the sheet feeding mechanism of the press.

It is, therefore one of the primary objects of our invention to providean attachment for the magazine of printing presses, which will efiectively and continuously feed and hold the foremost tag of a pack of tagsin a proper straight position for engagement by the sheet feedingmechanism of the press.

Another salient object of the invention is to provide a feeder armpivoted at one end adjacent to the forward end of the magazine and atthe thin side of the pack of tags and engaging the rear end of the packof tags having its free end movable forwardly by the usual feeder backrest plate of the magazine, whereby the angle of the said feeder armwill gradually decrease as the arm is swung forwardly on its pivot andthus compensate for the removal of the tags from the magazine by thepress feeder arm.

A further object of our invention is to provide a tag feeding attachmentfor printing presses, which can be readily and quickly applied to thestandard magazines of the said feeding device of a printing presswithout any change in the construction thereof at all.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a tag feedingmechanism for printing presses, which will be durable and eflicient inuse, one that will be simple and easy to manufacture and one which canbe placed upon the market at a reasonable cost.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in thenovel construction, arrangement and formation of parts, as will behereinafter more specifically described and claimed, and illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which drawings:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of the magazine of a sheet feeding mechanismfor a printing press showing our novel attachment incorporatedtherewith, parts of the attachment being shown in section.

Figure 2 is a detail, sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1looking in the drawings showing our tag feeder in use.

Figure 3 is a detail, vertical, sectional view taken on the line 3-3 ofFigure 2 looking in the direction of the arrows and showing our devicein use.

Figure 4 is an enlarged, detail, perspective view showing our tagfeeding attachment removed from the magazine.

Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein similar referencecharacters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views,the letter A generally indicates our novel attachment for a sheet feederF of a printing press.

The sheet feeder F is of the automatic type and corresponds to awell-known type of sheet feeder now found in the open market. Asillustrated, the sheet feeder F includes a magazine 5 having a table 6which ordinarily receives sheets on edge. Connected with the table 6 areside rails 1 and 8. Slightly mounted on the table 5 between the siderails I and 8 is a back rest supporting plate 9. The side rails I and 8are connected by a rear tie rod Ill and by a front tie rod H and theover front shaft l2 of the feeder. The back rest supporting plate 9 isgradually fed forwardly when the feeder is in use by the ordinarymechanism found in the feeders now on the market, and this feedingmechanism can be of the same type as shown in the A. Kluge et a1.Patent, 1,877,892, issued September 20, 1932. Hence, this mechanism hasnot been shown or described. The back rest supporting plate 9 for thesheets is provided with a longitudinal slot l3 for receiving certainparts, as will now be described.

As in the usual construction, the side guides l4 and i5 are provided forthe material being fed to the press, and these side guides extendthrough the slot l3 formed in the back rest plate 9. The side guides l4and [5 are adjustably mounted by means of a collar [6 on the rear rod I0 and are held in an adjusted position by set screws IT. The forwardends of the guide rods are hooked overthe front shaft l2 of the feeder.

Our attachment A comprises a supporting arm or bracket [8 and inapplying our attachment A to the feeder this arm is placed through theslot I3 in the plate 9, and the rear end of the arm or bracket isprovided with a hook or head l9, which is slipped over the rear rod ID.The head I9 carries a set screw 20 whereby the arm or bracket l8 can beheld in a desired adjusted position on the feeder relative to a pack oftags T to be fed to a printing press, not shown. The

bracket [8 extends parallel with the side guides l4 and i5, and itsforward end has secured thereto a guide rod 2|. Slidably mounted on theguide rod 2| is a hinge plate 22. The plate 22 is normally urgedforwardly on the guide rod 2! by an expansion spring 23 which is coiledabout the rod and confined between said plate 22 and the bracket arm l8.Adjustable stops 24 are threadedzon the guide rod 2! for limiting theforward sliding movement of the plate 22. The inner edge of the plate 22has formed thereon a hinge barrel 25 for the reception of -va hinge pin25 which carries the upper and lower leaves or sections 21 and 2-8 ofthe tag feeder arm 29.- In use, the lower leaf 128 extends-below theside guides 14 and I5 while the=upper-leaf 21 extends above the sideguides tests thereon.

Our attachment can be quickly associated with a feeder of the typeillustrated, and it is merely :necessary to pass the bracket arm 18through the slot Liotthebackrest plate -9 and tO I-IQQK the head;i,9,over the tie rod JG. The pack-of tags Teare-now placed on thetable5 and the :side guides [A are adjusted according to the length of thetags. The side guides l4 and li-extend forwardly over the table sbetween --the leafless? aI d- =Z-:8 .of .Qthefeederarm 29, and this armengages the rear end of thepack oftags T. fI 'he hinge plate P22 is"adjusted relative to the 4 that we have provided an exceptionallysimple and durable attachment which can be quickly and easily applied tothe magazine of the printing press for eificiently feeding tags to thefeeding arm of a printing press feeding mechanism.

Changes in details may be made without departing from the spirit or thescope of this invention, but What we claim as new is:

1 A tag feeding attachment for the sheet feeding mechanism of a printingpress'comprising a bracket, an attaching head on the rear end of thebracket, a forwardly extending rod on the -bracket, a hinge plateslidably mounted on the rod, spring means on said rod normallyurgingthe' hin'ge'plate forwardly on said rod, ad-

justable stops on the rod for limiting the forward movementpf the hingeplate under inforem st ,ta .an the.beck r t p t i f d forward y unti rthz re os tag of th Stack is in preperr position for engagement by "thefeeder rm of th fee i m ch ni m o h p s no h wn. A te th ad tm n ha beenmade so a t lin ur the nroperdelivery o t .taese o-r inress th pr ss istarted a d op rates v nfth usual-way. I a

, 'Ijhe feecler arm 29;functions to hold the foremost tag of the pack-oftags straight across the table B and the arm 29 conforms totheinclinatiomofthe rear-end of the packof tags. The ,fleezend of thearm,29 isiengagedrbythe back rest \plate ,9, and -as .theback rest plate 9is gradually and automatically .f ed forwardly, the

arm 29 is pushed'iforwardly and swung on its pi-vot or hinge,pin 2fito.feed the pack of tags forwardly, 'IZh-is arrangement is of primeimportance gas the-varmjfi is swung forwardly, thevangle thereofwillgraduallychange relative to :theguides 1.4 and .[5 and conform tothe angle of the rearv endr, of the pack T as the tags are ;re movedtherefrom. As shown in dotted li-nesnn Figure 1, when the arm 29 reachesits foremost position, the sameis-paralleLwith the few tags remaining inthe pack.

fire ene f r eeina s p on it can b s fiuence of the spring, and ahorizontally disposed tag engaging arm hingedly connected at one end tosaid hinge plate adapted to extend in rear of andaacrossthe tags,;theother end of-saidarm being free for-engagement with the'back restsupporting plate of the sheet feeding mechanism.

2. A tag feeding attachment-for the sheet feeding mechanism ;of aprinting press comprising, ja bracket an" attaching head on the rear endpf the bracket, -a=-forwardly extending rod onthe bracket, a hinge:plate slidably mounted on the rod, spring means-pn said/rod normallyurging' the hinge rplate forwardly on said ;ro d, adjustable stops pn--the rod ;f or -limiting the forward ;moven ent pf -the h in-g e plateunderinflu c re he-shr ne and 1a h r lly nesed ta en a n -arm ineedl nted se ninethences oirm) The following referencesare of record in thefile of this patent:

UNIT D STATE .RA' YE T Number Name Date -1;6-93,-986 gKluge ,et al. Dec.4, 1928 2,444,971 Baker -Ju1y-;13, 1948 I FQREIGNPATENTS Numbe C un r'UDate 23, 2 Germany r -+2, De 1.3, .1935

